st: programming graphical report

["Steve" <drlead@prodigy.net.mx>]

I've been asked to produce a report of an evaluation of an institution 
divided into some 20 separate departments each with approximately 30 
individuals (variable number in each department).  The data are arranged 
wide, with a string ID variable (individual name), a string department 
variable, and three numeric variables for the evaluation scales.

The report will be strictly graphical and its purpose is to place each 
individual on a cumulative summary of each department's ratings on three 
scales.  Thus I calculate the cumulative proportions of each scale for each 
department by

. by dept, sort : cumul desemp, generate(desacum) equal

. by dept, sort : cumul cond, generate(condacum) equal

etc.

I've manually generated the basic graph example with:

. twoway line desac desemp if dept=="1A", sort || scatter desacum desemp in 
4, msize(large)

This gives me a line plot with proportion of responses in the department on 
the y-axis and the ratings for a scale on the x-axis with the line showing 
the cumulative plot (first part of command); it also gives me an 
individual's scale score (from the fourth line of the data set), plotted as 
a large dot on the line (second part).

The present graph code uses a hardcoded -if- statement to restrict the 
plotting of the cumulative response to one department and a hard-coded -in- 
statement to pull the individual's score on that rating scale and plot it on 
the cumulative line for his department drawn by the first part of the 
command.

I want to go on to the second and third rating scales for that department 
and individual and use -graph combine- to produce a matrix of the cumulative 
ratings for that department and individual in the format:

X X
   X

and do the same for each individual in that department, each time producing 
the graphical matrix for each individual.  Then (or right after each -graph 
combine-), store the graphical matrix in an enhanced window metafile for 
import into a Word page, with the name of the .emf file a composite of the 
two letter department name and the first 10 letters of the subject ID (with 
spaces) for that matrix.

With over 600 individuals, it's clear it should not be done by hand.

After exhausting the individuals in the first department, the program should 
move on to the next departments and groups of individuals, producing a one 
page graphic matrix for each individual.

I've read sections of the User and Programming manuals on loops and macros, 
but can't figure out how to do the double indexing that's needed, nor to 
assign file names of output using parts of the two string variables for ID 
and department.

I'm using a Vista Windows machine, Stata MP 10.1, 2 GBytes memory.

Steve Rothenberg
CINVESTAV
Mexico 

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